Posted on 10/02/2017 3:30:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Josh Abbott Band guitarist Caleb Keeter took to Twitter Monday to start a conversation about gun control in the wake of last night's shooting that left 58 people dead and 515 others injured.
Hours after the band left the main stage at Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas Sunday evening, gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd of 22,000 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Casino & Resort. After his friends were account for, Josh Abbott issued a statement to E! News. "Everyone in our band and crew are safe. I had just left and was in the Mandalay Bay on the 20th floor with my fiancée during the shooting just a few floors away. The band & crew were on the concert grounds and saw people get shot. Some of my crew members were hit with shrapnel, but not injured. We are deeply disturbed by this horrific act of violence and send our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families," the country artist said. "It was a long awful night but we are blessed to be alive and healthy. Hug your loved ones tight."
A "proponent of the Second Amendment" his entire life, Keeter is now rethinking his stance on gun control. In a Twitter note, he wrote, "I cannot express how wrong I was. We actually have members of our crew with CHL licenses, and legal firearms on the bus. They were useless. We couldn't touch them for fear police might think we were part of the massacre and shoot us..."
The guitarist watched as "fearless police officers" safeguarded concertgoers, with many standing in the line of fire. "Writing my parents and the love of my life a goodbye last night and a living will because I felt like I wasn't going to live through the night was enough to for me to realize that this is completely and totally out of hand. These rounds were powerful enough that my crew guys just standing in close proximity of a victim shot by this f--king coward received shrapnel wounds. We need gun control RIGHT. NOW," he wrote. "My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn't realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it."
Now that he is out of harm's way, Keeter told his Twitter followers, "We are unbelievably fortunate to not be among the number of victims killed or seriously wounded by this maniac."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday it was "premature" to discuss potential legislation before all the facts about the Las Vegas mass shooting are revealed. "This is an unspeakable tragedy. Today is a day for consoling the survivors and mourning those we lost. Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with all of those individuals. There's a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country. There is currently an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation; a motive has yet to be determined, and it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don't fully know all the facts or what took place last night. I think there will be certainly time for that policy discussion to take place, but that's not the place that we're in at this moment. But certainly, I think there's a time for that to happen."
Local police are urging families trying to locate missing loved ones to call 1-866-535-5654. The FBI is also asking anyone who has pictures or videos from the shooting to call 1-800-255-5324.
For those who would like to donate blood for the injured victims of the Strip shooting, police officers have asked them to visit the Labor Health & Welfare Clinic, located at 7135 W. Sahara.
I went to check on the 2nd amendment after Caleb’s “rethink”...nothings changed, it’s still the same.
Agree there’s a time and place for everything. Now is not the time or place to have the gun control debate. But various liberal politicians and Hollywood idiots are starting that debate today.
Real shallow thinker, shut up and play your guitar.
>> “I cannot express how wrong I was. We actually have members of our crew with CHL licenses, and legal firearms on the bus. They were useless. We couldn’t touch them for fear police might think we were part of the massacre and shoot us...”
They won’t always protect you, and the lack of value was not from a threat of friendly fire from police, the shooter was hundreds of yards away from an elevated point. Pew pew wouldn’t have taken him out from down on the ground.
>>We need gun control RIGHT. NOW,” he wrote. “My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.”
Would he propose confiscation? Because this shooter had been acquiring weapons for awhile, it wasn’t one bulk purchase.
He passed the background checks.
Prohibit even more weapons (with no grandfather status)?
Ban bullets?
I don’t know who “The Josh Abbott Band” is, and
I don’t know who “Caleb Keeter” is, but
one thing I do know is that I don’t care what he thinks.
>>nothings changed, it’s still the same.
Yep - 2nd is still protecting 1st - even for idiot guitar players.
Can’t find any stance from him on Bernie, Hillary, or Trump.
Odd that he is now afraid of the guns carried by his crew.
So?
And this is the kind of clear thinking he put into his decision???
He’s going to feel a cold shoulder from the crew over his tweet storm.
"Start a conversation" is lefty speak for "lecture you about why you're wrong".
Awful lot about this one we’ll probably never understand.
Why did the shooter get 72 minutes of range fire before a police response?
I need to see the police AAR from the event. Serious.
Best picture of the night? The guy drinking a beer and flipping off the shooter. He understands probability theory, which sure calmed my mind (sans beer) the first time I jumped out of an airplane (42000 people jump out of a C130 every year at Ft Benning....6 burn in, what are the odds...).
Condolences to the families of the deceased. Hard to take the empty seat at the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table, but, I’m sorry, veteran’s families do it every single year. Freedom is not free.
I'm much more afraid of my government that I am of isolated madmen. (And so was Alexander Hamilton - see Federalist #28.)
ML/NJ
This is what I don't understand. I can see a few people getting killed if he shot willy-nilly into a big crowd, and with the music going I can see that it would take some time to even realize there was a shooter. But I don't see how 500 people were shot. Didn't they take cover? Seriously, what am I missing here?
I’m sorry why do we care what some unknown guitarist thinks about the second amendmen? Could this “story” be more irrelevant?
Oh, brother!
The nation has been waiting breathlessly for his pronouncement ALL DAY!
Thanks for posting this. But it should be in Breaking News, of course...
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